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Friday, February 28, 2014

March already..... I'm still arranging and rearranging my lovely log cabins from last year (and feeling so lucky, thankyou all for your marvellous blocks), so to put focussed thought into another block was a challenge. The whirlygiggle block is really easy and I hope you have fun putting it together. A bit of surfing showed that the original tutorial comes from Greeting Arts, but I quite liked Holly and Olive's technique which doesn't involve templates or anything complicated.

What you need:

Two x 5 inch squares of a green patterned fabric. I'm hoping you all have some lovely greens in your stashes to use. I love warm greens, olive, hunter green, sea green, sage, khaki, citron green, chartreuse, peacock green just about all greens. I'm trying to think of an exception, but can only think of a dark forest green, that I reckon I might even like sometimes! I am also hoping you have these greens in a modern print please. I would rather not have marbles or batik's if possible.

Two x 5 inch squares of a white self-patterned fabric (but if you only have plain white, that's ok)

What you do:
1. On each square make a diagonal cut 2 inches in from the top left corner to 2 inches from the bottom right hand corner.

2. Then re-arrange as per photo below:

3. With right sides together, sew the little sub-blocks together (scant 1/4 inch naturally), so that you end up with four sub-blocks like below:

4. Re-arrange again so that it looks like the windmill shape below:

5. Join. You'll end up with a block like this.

I then trimmed it to the largest size possible which ended up being 8 1/4 inches square. Now I don't see that size of block being constructed out there in blogland, but blimey, that extra 1/4 inch all around will make them 8 inches when all joined up and all the more green to see and enjoy in my opinion.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Amy, I can't wait to see the finished quilt! The stars blocks are my all time favorite to make. I would also like it to go on record that not only did I have my block done BEFORE the end of February, I also posted on the blog! I hope you are all staying warm!

Stephanie from Iowa, USA

P.S. I did not square it up. I always like to let the quilter do that.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

I was feeling a bit more confident this go around, and then realized I had no clue how to do these HST things! Thank you so much for Amy (Canada) and Shauna and Micaela who came to my rescue at Amy's house. It was really nice getting to meet them, and spend time learning a bit more about quilting. I got everything cut and made the triangles and turned them into squares while at Amy's house. I never thought I'd be able to do this, so I'm feeling quite accomplished now! I managed to finally sort out the bobbin issue. I still can't explain it, but now it works, so I'm just knocking on wood that it doesn't happen again. I finally pieced it all together today and I think that, aside from a few little things that I can notice, it looks okay! I'm sure that as I make more of these, I'll be able to line them up a bit better, but I really gave it my best this time around! I'm really looking forward to next month's quilt now.

I was very excited to get started with International Stashes in the new year,
but also a bit nervous due to my lack of experience. I got a bit more
nervous when I saw that we weren't supposed to use our rulers for this
one. I hope it makes sense when I say that I didn't feel like I had
enough experience with rulers, to be able to do this without one.
I totally flubbed a few parts for this reason, and had to make up for
this by making a smaller seam allowance, and even sewing on a couple
extra centimetres of fabric in some cases. I hope it still looks ok in the grand scheme of things! I also had a bobbin issue right as I was getting ready to put it all together (late at this point!) and so had to send the pieces for Jennifer to put together. I figured at least this way she could make sure to get them together the way she wanted. All in all, it was a great learning experience, and got me excited about the next one!

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Hooray, I finished my February block for Amy before my children were on mid term break!

After Linsays help last time I thought it was time to tackle this one on my own. I am really pleased with how it has turned out. There is a slight pattern in the cream but too subtle to see in the photo, and nothing too "girly"

Monday, February 24, 2014

I was conscious of your intended recipient of this quilt Amy and so discarded a couple of my initial fabric choices because they were too floral. As a result I think my star has turned out.....well, quite masculine.

Has anyone else had trouble getting the block flat? Despite pressing alternate ways, pressing from the front, pressing from the back, and pressing and pressing and pressing some more, all those seems close together make the block want to "lift". Am I missing something critical?

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

I am so so excited to share with you pictures of my finished International Stashes 2013 quilt!! I love it so much. I keep going up to look at and marvel at the beautiful fabrics and colors. Every time I look at it I find a something I haven't seen before. Thank you for all of your help. I ended up paying someone to quilt it. I have come to the conclusion that I love cutting, piecing and putting the top together, but quilting is just not my strong suit. Especially with such a big quilt, I just couldn't tackle it. I will give it a try again, though, I promise! I'm just so happy it is finally done!

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Here you go, Amy! This was a fun fast block to make. I feel like I've gotten some good experience making HST's these past three years and I'm finally getting the hang of it! I hope that this finds its place in your sweet quilt for your father.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

I finished this block a couple of weeks ago and as I was doing the last seams I thought to myself, 'Why does sewing small pieces of fabric together make me so happy?' I have asked myself this question before but never reached a satisfactory answer. I did love making this. I love how the interior of each small block is slightly out of kilter but the nine patch is firm in its structure. Jennifer should have this block by now and I hope if fits in nicely with all the other blocks. I am looking forward to seeing the overall effect.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

I got a good start on the Jan square, but it took until yesterday to get it finished. Hope you like it Jennifer - I had a great time working with the solids, and I loved the subtle differences that came from the free cutting, though I'll admit I did use my ruler as a guide about half an inch away from where I was intending to make the cut, and I estimated pretty wide. I ended up trimming quite a bit to get to the 8" squares, but I think it worked out in the end. It went in the mail today.

It has been very snowy here this winter, though I know we're not unique, it has been tough for many in North America... Here's our patio table. We haven't had this much snow piled up for many years, and more is coming today!

I am excited about Amy's February square, and I've already cut out the pieces... now to wait until the kids are up from their naps so the sewing machine doesn't wake them up :)